Bernie joined the lab in 2010 with a background in molecular biology and Drosophila genetics. Her current projects involve flight assays and fiber mechanics of a fly with a mutation responsible for a human muscle disease known as inclusion body myopathy-3. She is also involved in the investigation into the role of the myosin heavy chain converter region, asking how the alternate converter exons affect the mechanical properties of flight muscle. She created a construct that contains the cDNA version of the indirect flight isoform of myosin heavy chain to use for transgenics and a version of this construct that is labeled with a FLASH tag. Bernie has a MS degree from Rutgers University and has past experience at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the New York State Department of Health as well as four years of experience using Drosophila to study developmental biology.